20th Annual · 2021
The museum’s twentieth appreciation event, held online in the middle of the pandemic. Five honorees, and a tribute to a friend of the museum.
Saturday, March 27, 2021
6:00 PM CST · Held virtually
Recognized for commitment, generosity and service to this community.
Former Bryan City Councilmember
Blinn College
Texas A&M Foundation
American Red Cross
Bryan ISD
Date
Saturday, March 27, 2021
Time
6:00 PM CST
Where
Held virtually
Dr. Nkrumah Dixon moderated. The speaker was Ebony Peterson, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Bryan/College Station. Music was by Eugene Eugene, the colors were presented by the Bryan ISD Air Force JROTC, and Voices of Praise and Donnie Nelson performed.
The evening opened with a memory tribute to Linda Druery Gilbert, December 25, 1956 – December 30, 2020.
Each honoree had a page of their own at the time of the event. Those biographies are kept here, in the words the museum published then.
Former Bryan City Councilmember
Read the biography
Helen Chavarría was raised in the Brazos Valley and graduated from Stephen F. Austin High School in 1956. She began her career with J. Weingarten, Inc. as a salesclerk and trainer, later working for Freckles Broadcasting, for the Brazos County Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4 as a clerk and interpreter, and for HEB as a bookkeeper. In 1989 her passion for education took her to Region VI Education Service Center, and from 1992 to 2001 she served the Brazos Valley Council of Government as an Information and Housing Management Specialist.
She became the first Hispanic woman to serve on the Bryan City Council, where she served three terms, and also served as a Commissioner on the City of Bryan Planning and Zoning Commission. Her volunteer service includes the Brazos Valley Development Council, the American Heart Association, the Salvation Army and El Club Social; she chaired the Brazos Valley Action Agency and served on the board of First Federal Savings and the executive boards of B/CS Business and Professional Women and LULAC Oakhill.
She has donated countless hours to issues affecting Hispanic residents and to the advancement of underrepresented minorities, and has been recognized as a key Hispanic leader by the Business and Professional Women of Houston. She received the Hispanic Forum Lifetime Achievement Award for a lifetime of service. A member of St. Theresa Catholic Church since 1945, she attends mass with her husband of 63 years, Oscar Chavarria, Sr.; they have two children, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Blinn College
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Essie Childers is a graduate of The University of Texas at Tyler, Abilene Christian University and Walden University. For 32 years she has taught with the goal of mentoring and encouraging students to reach their academic and personal goals, and for 13 of those years she has built a strong record teaching first-year students through a Learning Frameworks course at Blinn College in Bryan.
In 2013 she published her first book, Packing Tools for Success Beyond Middle School, and became founding director of the Young Ladies Success Summit. The first summit was held on the Blinn College campus on February 9, 2013; since then more than 500 students, parents, speakers and volunteers have taken part, and the program is now a non-profit organization.
She is a past president of the Texas Community College Teachers Association and serves on its foundation board. In 2020 she was named a You’re the Tops Honoree and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from College Academic and Support Programs. She married her college sweetheart, Terry Childers; they have three children and two grandchildren.
Texas A&M Foundation
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Al Pulliam, originally from Mississippi, has lived in the Bryan/College Station community since coming to Texas A&M University more than 30 years ago. A former member of the Texas A&M basketball team and the first in his family to attend college, he graduated in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in Recreation, Parks & Tourism Science.
After playing professionally in Europe he returned to Texas A&M, first in the Office of Admissions and then as scholastic supervisor for the men’s basketball program and the men’s and women’s track and field programs. He later joined the Texas A&M Foundation as Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations, and for more than 20 years has focused on raising funds for hundreds of scholarships for underrepresented and first-generation students.
He stays close to the community through youth coaching and mentoring with organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club. His wife Shawn is a 1988 Texas A&M graduate; they have two sons, Adrian and Trey.
American Red Cross
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Anjuli Renold serves as Executive Director of the American Red Cross Heart of Texas Chapter, which works to alleviate human suffering in the face of disaster by mobilizing volunteers and donors. She has been with the Red Cross since December 2019.
Before that she spent ten years as an advocate for children with Court Appointed Special Advocates, as Executive Director for Voices for Children, CASA of the Brazos Valley, and as Director of Family Engagement for CASA in Travis County. She holds a degree from Texas A&M (class of ’02) and a master’s from the University of North Texas (2009). She was closely involved in running the Brazos Valley vaccination hub during the COVID-19 response.
A mother of two sons, she has served as President-Elect of Bryan Rotary, Treasurer of the First Presbyterian Children’s Center Ministry, Treasurer of Boy Scout Troop 976, and a board member of Fiestas Patrias Mexicanas in Bryan and the Bryan ISD Superintendent Advisory Council.
Bryan ISD
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Rev. Derron H. Robinson was born and raised in Hearne, Texas, the son of Charles and Jacquelyn Allen and the grandson of Esther Marie Roach. He graduated from Hearne High School in 2001 and received his Bachelor of Science from Prairie View A&M University in Interdisciplinary Studies in 2006.
He began his career as a parent liaison in Hearne ISD, then taught fourth-grade ELA at Anson Jones Elementary in Bryan ISD before returning to Hearne ISD to teach at the middle school and serve as an instructional coach. He earned his master’s degree in educational administration in 2017, serving as Dean of Students during his final months in the program, and became an assistant principal at James Earl Rudder High School the following year.
He is married to Jarvellyn Neshae, a counselor at James Earl Rudder High School, and they have three children: Cristian Derron, Jayda Derrone’ and Jayce De’Ron.
The appreciation banquet is the museum’s largest fundraiser of the year. It pays for the exhibitions, the school tours and the hours the building is open.
